I don't really buy the argument that either Microsoft or the content creators are 'evil' - yes it is only natural to want to be paid - but that doesn't mean tha

I don't really buy the argument that either Microsoft or the content creators are 'evil' - yes it is only natural to want to be paid - but that doesn't mean that if it happens it won't be a bad thing. On your second point - search is by no means as fragmented as this would result in it being. The specialised databases you speak of are just that, currently our expectation is that Google, Bing, et al all index the web we see on a day to day basis. Ideally those databases (if they are already in some form 'public') should be indexable by all search engines - it's the best thing for the consumer, and is pure competition on the technical front.